If I export my Android Contacts to the phone's SD card, then move that Vcard file via USB to Windows for backup, what software, if any, can open that file in Windows? Even if nothing will open it, is there any risk to the file being corrupted within Windows and not usable to import back to the phone?
On android normally the contacts are backed up to Goole mail so if you goto Google contacts they should all be there so no need to backup or you can copy from contacts
Thank you samuria. I appreciate your suggestion. I do not use anything from google more than I have to - I know Android is from google but there's almost no choice about that - because of their intrusive behavior of compiling and keeping every bit of information they can get about everybody. But to my knowledge, unless I use google Duo - which I don't - google does not upload/backup my Contacts.
Hmm... I have auto-sync set to off but perhaps I should check that it isn't happening anyway.
It's really just a human readable text document. Much like JSON. JSON stands for JavaScript Object Notation. If you have a JSON of in this case a vCard and you have Notepad++ installed (or its portable version) you can simply right click the vCard or JSON file and open WITH Notepad++. Of course, the formatting is gonna be all over the place, but still human readable. Meaning, not is some weird Russian-like computer code (unicode).
If you have use the Thunderbird or Outlook email clients, they can handle the vCard format perfectly well. So can Excel or Libre Office/Open Office. I personally use Libre Office and their Excel counterpart is simply called Calc. Pretty much the same thing as Excel minus the BS fee. LOL If I had a business I'd mandate Libre Office and as much open source software as possible. Free, code is easily peer reviewed, and just makes sense.
Resources worth your interest:
vCard - Wikipedia
vCards in Mozilla Thunderbird (v-cards)
How to Open VCF File in Windows 10 (3 Easy Ways)
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If you don't already use Thunderbird, OI gotta tell you it's waaay better than Outlook. Also, Thunderbird now has built-in PGP (Pretty Good Privacy) encryption. It makes signing an email or sending email in an encrypted format much easier. Prior to Thunderbird actually adding PGP as a core feature you had to depend on a Thunderbird add-on (extension) and a program installed on the computer that interacted with Thunderbird and the Thunderbird add-on just for PGP. It was called Enigmail and the the program is Kleopatra. Being the with merit cybersecurity paranoid person I am, I still use Kleopatra. Not Thunderbird built-in PGP capability. If you do use PGP in mail you don't want o render (parse) your email as a full blown pretty HTML and images email. You want to go to View in Thunderbird and chose just text for emails. And you don't want to load third-pray images either. Reason being is that there is a CVE (Commons Vulnerability and Exposure) fro PGP and hacked emails using the HTML/JS to grab your PGP private key. To my knowledge it's never been fixed. But I always render my email in text format so it was never an issue for me. Yes, the emails will look bad, but if you are used to it like I am and know how to read them if they use code it's not really a big deal. It also helps me know if there are any embedded shenanigans in the email if they are rendered in text format rather than parsed HTML to make the email look all pretty and whatnot. It goes without saying that security and/or privacy is sometimes a cumbersome and tedious process. That's probably why so many just ignore the risks and deal with that bridge if they need to cross it. Being very computer centric it's just my personal ethos to roll the way I do.
Now onto that Android/Google issue. You can use any number of third-party operating systems for a phone providing the OS is meant fro that phone and you know how to flash the phone with said third-party phone OS. A couple off the top of my head are LineageOS and GrapheneOS. Your play store alternative will be F-Droid or something called Aurora I think it is. You can use F-Droid right now in stock Android. In LineageOS you can incorporate the Google play store in your flash of the phone, but I wouldn't. Even though the OS for the phone has changed you still have to be careful about the Apps you install and whatnot... It's certainly not for everyone, and depending on what your App daily life ecosystem is like, a third-party OS for a phone may not be for you. For me it is because I limit what Apps I install. Meaning, I just don't install the Starbucks or McDonalds App for "perks" and other stupid things. My phone is for utility and being the nerd I am. Not for marketing metrics and data collection for "perks" at the expensive of my personal privacy on a day by day basis. I just shake my head every time I see people in line at the Starbucks drive-thru or McDonalds and what have who all hold their phone out the window getting their QR "citizen" code scanned. Smart devices out smart us carbon based life form chimps, let me tell you... On the other hand, and now that I think of it. I probably could just wipe my old phone for the sole use of nothing but this marketing perk stuff... LOL *Goes through the Starbucks drive-thru and holds out my phone* "Wow, haven't seen a Galaxy S4 in a while." Yeah, it's a keeper..." LOL!
to the pith of it, I moved all my android Ph. numbers with a in phone export function about 4 years ago by being helped with a 2nd stage tech at my phone company, took about 2 mins. to save on my computer, short call.
I can not remember the exact process, but it was quick with a USB/phone cable.
just call them, life's too short to get lost in wonder how you do it land.
if you can memorize the process would be nice if you posted it back here
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